Ex-trainer hits out at Khan's new regime

Monday 8 September 2008 19.01 EDT
First published on Monday 8 September 2008 19.01 EDT

Oliver Harrison has described his successor as Amir Khan's trainer, Jorge Rubio, as "a Cuban amateur" and said the boxer should consider linking up with Naseem Hamed's former trainer Brendan Ingle if he is to have any chance of rebuilding his career after his 54sec knockout against the Colombian Breidis Prescott.

Harrison, 47, was sacked as Khan's trainer after he had guided the 2004 Olympic silver medallist through his first 17 wins as a professional. The promoter Frank Warren's matchmaker, Dean Powell, then stood in to prepare Khan for his victory over Michael Gomez before Rubio, a former trainer of the Cuban national squad, was hired for the Prescott fight.

"I can't believe how Amir fought," said Harrison. "It was absolutely the wrong way to fight somebody who can bang. I can't believe they learned him to keep his hands up and just stand in front of a fighter like that. He tries to be macho but that's not Amir. He naturally has his hands low and slips and slides like Tommy Hearns. The Amir I know would have his guard in front of his face and slip and slide to avoid the punches. But the Cuban guy had him with his hands up just walking forward. Madness. Any half-decent fighter could have hit him."

Harrison was angered by quotes attributed to the Khan camp after he had been dismissed saying it had always been the plan to look for an overseas trainer. Last week Khan went further, saying Harrison had never properly shown him what he was doing wrong. But Harrison blames the interference of Khan's entourage, principally his father, Shah, and his business manager, Asif Vali, for creating an impossible working environment.

"All I ever wanted was Amir to myself," he said. "But they wanted him to do interviews, to open clubs. Now he's even been saying, 'I like the cameras, I want the cameras,' and slagging me off like I was an old girlfriend. Now they go and get a Cuban amateur trainer.

"Team Khan are amateurs. I was the only pro there and I was fighting an uphill battle. So when I saw him knocked out I was happy but sad. Happy because of what they have said about me but sad because I could have taken him to the top.

"If they had gone out and hired Floyd Mayweather or Buddy McGirt I might have felt a little better. But I think they brought in the cheapest person. And what does he do? He has Amir holding his hand up high like a German. Amir is a slick boxer, he could have boxed that guy's head off. Against a puncher, to fight like that ... I don't think so."

Although Khan intends to stand by Rubio and use him for his next contest, Harrison believes the Cuban should be dismissed and has urged Khan to consider bringing in Ingle and his son Dominic, who have been the brains behind outstanding Sheffield-based fighters including Hamed, the former world featherweight champion.

Rubio has returned to Miami and was unavailable for comment last night. But Vali insisted there were no regrets about the split with Harrison, saying: "Amir still wants Rubio to be his coach. Jorge is very upset and disappointed what happened because Amir did not have a chance to show everybody what he has learned. He wanted to prove something as a coach and it didn't happen, so naturally he is down.

"A lot of things were wrong and we will learn from it. Amir is going back to the drawing board. He's still a 21-year-old boy. Perhaps we didn't do our homework but he has to forget talking about the world title. It is about rebuilding now."